Lies, now open source: India-Pakistan conflict brings people to focus on open source intelligence and credibility issues
Apologize. That’s not the Sun’s offer.
It is believed that the Chinese general who lived during the Zhou Dynasty (771-256 B.C.) wrote The Art of War, a seminal book on military strategy. He is also one of the most cited people on earth.
Anyone with a computer and internet connection can make up for and expand what they want, including fake Sun quotes, or narratives that are indeed fake in the fight. This is the problem that open source intelligence (OSINT) discovers itself. OSINT should be a key tool for ordinary people to understand the world around them.
For those late, the dictionary defines OSINT as information that can be collected legally from the Internet and is used by those jobs that ensure people and companies are safe, and are also used by those who want to attack them.
This does sound important, especially in the context of geopolitical conflict. Wars today are as much as perception and are related to real impact. At its core is the Osint social media handle that breaks military jargon for you.
From satellite images to data on websites to public records to social media to network data, it is theoretically possible that even ordinary people can plan accurate pictures even during wars.
The word surgery is “theoretical.”
As the latest India-Pakistan military conflict suggests, Oster is also a minefield of misleading and propaganda. For example, anyone with satellite images passes as an OSINT expert on social media, a message that is often amplified.
This is the problem.
Speed and accuracy
Open Source Intelligence Consultant and Coach Nico Dekens (aka Dutch Osint Guy) believes that social media makes Osint who is who is who, rather than actually being accurate.
“In the Ukrainian-Russian War, the battle in Gaza, Israel, on May 7, people have discovered that they can see in some cases near real-time that they can watch Cruisemissile Plumes or aircraft tracks on X (a few accounts on Twitter) or on Telegram,” he said.
The democratization of visits also leads to the democratization of creation. As Dekens said, for anyone with evil intentions to manipulate, “the barrier to entry is basically a screenshot.”
This incident has been complicated by a series of events that have occurred over the past few years.
Pankaj Jain, a social media fraud killer who is one of India’s oldest fact-checking platforms, believes that most claims and counterclaims are posted on X. He said it became stronger, stronger, and richer before Elon Musk took over the social media platform, and before it overturned misinformation.
He believes that engagement is now X’s currency. Actions that want to sell error messages.
The low barriers Dekens talks about fit the theory. “The public image of the OSINT analyst has become a person who has red on JPEG/Image,” Dekens said, adding that the perceived gap between rigorous analysis and rapid combat against the virality is a misleading trend. “Fast and certainty. The platform rewards the person who publishes first, not the person who publishes the right one.”
He said that means “even reliable analysts now feel the pressure to post a “job” assessment and need to be corrected later.”
“For the average follower, it looks like a flip, eroding the trust of the entire Osint.”
Another promotional tool
Although Osint has had a big positive impact in the world, all of this is happening.
Like before social media, Osint was celebrated by many as a positive solution to bring transparency without obvious bias. It is also a key tool for civic journalism, bringing people beyond official narratives.
Elliot Higgins, founder of Bellingcat, an investigative journalism website, says, “Social media has dramatically expanded public awareness of OSINT, transforming it from a niche investigative practice into a widely recognized tool for understanding global events. The viral success of OSINT investigations— whether tracking troop movements via TikTok or verifying war crimes with satellite imagery—has made the method seem both accessible and powerful.”
Now, wars are as much as the offline world in the open internet, and winning the battle of perception is crucial. That is the single skill of a country that wants to gain advantages in the field of information warfare.
As Ritu Gill, a Canadian-based Osint analyst, said: “Osint can and has been weaponized.
“Context is important, and so is intention,” she stressed.
Dekens calls this manipulation “narrative money laundering,” he said: “National and non-state actors sow seed false information through influential people or ‘news’ accounts, letting it amplify through good sharers, and then point the results to “open source noise”, pointing it to “open source proof.” ”
He said Russia and China were around NATO or Israel – the information of Hamas claimed to use video game lenses is textbook case. “The purpose is to confuse. If everything is fake, it’s hard to declare the real thing.”
Separate wheat from chaff
Ultimately, in most cases of publicity and misinformation, it is unfortunate that personal responsibility determines what to believe and not do so.
You, the reader, need to arm some basics if you want to get a better understanding. It starts with healthy skepticism. Deakens’s suggestion is based on an extreme version of this suspicion. “Think of each image as a crime scene clue: record it, date it, take it geographically, and never believe it until at least two (preferably three or more unrelated sources) while saying the same thing while showing the evidence and all the steps that lead to the evidence.”
One thing Higgins is also looking for is methodological transparency. “If someone shares the claim, I want to see if they explain how they came to the conclusions – what sources they used, how they validate them and whether the process is reproducible. I also note whether they distinguish between known content, inferred content and speculativeness.”
According to him, true Osint practitioners tend to engage in constructively with problems and challenges, publicly correcting mistakes rather than dramatic evidence. “If the handle prioritizes engagement metrics over accuracy, or mixes unverifiable claims with serious analysis, that’s usually a red flag,” he said.
Jill agreed and added: “Not all ‘osints’ are equal. If something feels too perfect or too shocking to be true, it’s worth a second. A little bit of critical thinking can make a big difference and there’s a long way to go in this space.”
She has a six-point list to confirm whether something claimed to be based on Osint is reliable:
- Verification information: If multiple reputable sources say the same, it is more likely to be accurate.
- Check credentials: Who shares information? What is their background?
- Verification date and location: Old or unrelated videos are often recycled during current events; always carefully checked.
- Use reverse image search: This can help determine whether the image is the latest or past event.
- Follow a trusted OSINT source: Accounts like BellingCat are known for their strict transparent work.
- Keep healthy suspicion: Especially during conflict, uncertainty is Nor m. Overconfidence in any claim should be a red flag.
While all of this makes people’s responsibility appealing to news, it may also be crucial for others in the chain from social media platforms to the Osint community itself to find ways to postpone it.
Pratik Sinha, co-founder of fact-checking platform ALT News, told a broader issue in media culture that people on the street identify the responsibility between right and wrong, especially given the lack of multiple perspectives in mainstream media. He said that ordinary people may not have the right understanding to question what they see on social media, without counter-narratives.
Ultimately, one thing is clear. “Open source intelligence has never been more obvious and more vulnerable. Platforms that allow citizen analysts to reveal hidden truths will also promote propagandists as loudspeakers,” Deakens said.
For the key tools at present, even the future of information dissemination, news and transparency, this is a problem that needs to be addressed. etc.
After all, as Sun Tzu said, “In chaos, there are opportunities.”
Yes, it’s a real offer and taken from the art of war.
